How to Make Exercise a Habit

Many people, despite their desire to achieve a fitness goal, find it hard to create the new habits that will set them up for success. With good reason, though... it’s not easy to start a new routine. When it comes to working out, there’s a lot of undoing old habits and tons of work involved. Even the most fit person in the gym, most likely finds it challenging sometimes to keep up. It can feel overwhelming the amount of time, consistency, and hard work it takes to really make working out a habit. Especially if you have any lifestyle or physical constraints that could present a challenge for you to work out on a regular basis.

So how do you make working out a habit?

What Is a Habit?

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”

Jim Rohn

A habit is any behavior you have done repeatedly until it is something you do without thinking about it. Some of these behaviors could be considered positive if they are conducive to helping you reach your goal. Others of these behaviors may be called "bad habits" if they are detrimental to you achieving success. Both good and bad habits are hard to quit. It's almost like you can be addicted to making the same behavior choices whether they are good for you or not...

A habit is created through repetition plus the anticipation of the predicted outcome which reinforces your tendency to do it again. In order for our habits to kick in, something in our environment triggers us to rely on our automatic responses.

Elements to Making a Habit Stick

According to BJ Fogg, doctor and founder of Persuasive Technology Lab, creating a new habit has 3 key elements: trigger, motivation, and ability. From his research, he has determined that if a habit fails to stick, it is because it lacks one of these three aspects. Creating a new workout habit is no different.

Identify a Trigger

A trigger is an environmental cue that prompts or calls for you to do something. Triggers can be found anywhere. For example, a good way to trigger you into workout mode is to get your gym clothes ready the night before, and have them sitting in plain view when you wake up in the morning. Or if your goal is to drink more water, you can set a reminder on your phone to alert you to hydrate. Seems simple enough, but of course you actually have to answer the triggers for it to engrain the habit. Eventually, after enough times of repeatedly answering the cues, you will find that the desired habit will come surprisingly natural to you.

Find the Motivation

Before you can commit to creating any new habit, you have to find a strong reason "why" you want to do it. If you would like to create a workout habit so that you can lose weight, ask yourself "WHY" you want to lose the weight. Was it recommended by your doctor? Will the weight loss make you more confident? Do you believe the weight loss will improve the quality of your life in some way? Whatever your motivation is, it needs to be something you are personally passionate about and rooted in a deep core value in order for it to be powerful enough to stick to long enough to create the new exercise habit.

Identify Your Ability

At times there are limiting factors that can impact your ability to commit to a new habit. Perhaps you have a busy work schedule. Or maybe an injury may affect your physical capabilities to perform certain exercises. Or kids and spouse can demand a lot of your time and attention. Even if the triggers and the motivation is there, if the ability is not there, you may find it challenging to create a new workout habit. It is important to identify any limitations or obstacles that could get in the way of working out consistently, and map out a way around them whenever possible, so that you can be successful in creating this new habit.

How to Create Your New Exercise Habit

The approach to creating your new workout habit will require some planning ahead and knowing yourself. Pick a goal that is small enough to digest and anticipate ahead of time the excuses you might make when you want to skip a day or slack off. Be proactive to set yourself up for success.

Plan Your Triggers

Remember, a trigger is anything in your environment that makes your brain say "it's workout time!" Here are a few examples:

• Schedule workout alerts in your phone. Pick days and times that you know you can commit to getting in some activity (no matter how little or how much), and put a recurring reminder at the same time each day. (i.e. you can plan to stretch 15 minutes every morning upon waking)

• Pack your gym bag the night before and leave it by your front door.

• Do something healthy before you workout. Take your vitamins or supplements, drink a few glasses of water, or do some breath work. Whatever you choose, it should put you in the mind of working out.

It is also important to identify other triggers you may have, specifically the ones that cause you to skip your workout instead of doing it. Maybe you hit the snooze button a few times each morning, instead of using that time to exercise. Or perhaps you have a drink of wine after a long day of work instead of getting water and going to the gym.

The same way you created that habit of having a glass of wine after work, you can create a new habit of drinking water and working out instead.

Plan Your Workouts

Most gym rats will tell you, it is absolutely imperative that you plan and log your workouts. There are a few reasons for this. One of the most important reasons to plan your workouts is so that you will have direction. For new and experienced exercisers alike, if you lack direction or have no clue what you're going to do for the day, it can be really easy to quit on your workout.

Another reason it is important to plan your workouts is because your workouts will need to reflect your current ability level. It's a common mistake for someone to try to start their workouts at a level that they "used to" work out. Also it's real easy to follow a work out plan that may not be appropriate for your specific fitness ability. When you're not working out based on your current ability, your chances of injury are super high. Injury and being crazy sore are 2 of the biggest reasons people "take a break" from their workouts and don't come back.

When you're first creating your workout habit, you'll need to plan workouts that are appropriate for your ability, and SO easy and doable that it just doesn't make sense to NOT do them. Your chances of repeatedly working out drastically increase if you have confidence and belief in your self-efficacy

Sample Workout Options

• Body weight exercises and calisthenics. Exercises that don't require a gym or equipment.

• Walk/Jog Intervals: Walk 1 min, jog 1 min for 20 mins. You can modify the jog intervals to fit your ability.

• Plank Challenge: Plank for as long as you can 3 times. See if you can hit a 5 minute plank.

Plan Your Rewards

There are built in rewards of exercise. After just 1 workout, you can feel noticeably in a better mood. After a consistent week, you may notice more strength. A few weeks later, you may start to feel like your clothes are fitting you a little differently. It's important to celebrate and acknowledge those small changes. Once you're consistent for long enough, you actually start craving it.

You should reward yourself, too! Try incentivizing your workouts, so that you'll have more than just the natural changes to look forward to.

• Pay yourself $5 for every workout you complete, and then plan what you will buy with it at the end of your program.

• Get new gym clothes or shoes when you hit a goal (i.e. ran 10 miles this month)

• Have your favorite cheat meal on a designated day after working out regularly.

• Take cute progress photos to show off your results!

Additional Tips for Making Your Exercise Habit Stick

There are a few other ways to reinforce your new workout habit. Some of them are:

• Do your workouts at the same time each day. If it's possible, the more consistent you can stay with your schedule, the more successful you will be at making the new habit stick.

• Create workout ritual. Set up those triggers for yourself, and do a pre-planned set of behaviors that prime you for your workouts.

• Track your workouts. Have a physical representation of your completed workouts so you can visually see what you've done.

• Do something you enjoy. Exercise isn't always fun, but at least pick an activity that you like and that you can do easily and comfortably.

• Focus on making the habit, the results will come. It can be frustrating when we want results that don't seem to come fast enough. Focus on being consistent, and don't pay as much attention to the results. They will come :-)

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Getting started on your fitness journey can be the hardest part. The key is to make it as easy and simple as possible for you to start and stick with your workout program. In order to do that, plan your cues, behaviors, and rewards. Choose activities that fit your fitness level and your interests. Start small, and focus on showing up each day to give it all you can. Line up all these things for an extended amount of time, and pretty soon, you'll have a new lifestyle habit that comes as natural as breathing.